The TFS baseline environmental monitoring program was established in September 2006 at the request of the Toolik scientific community to expand the collection of baseline environmental data and make them available to the research community. The program is charged to collect data complementary to and in extension of those already collected by other long-term studies, such as the Arctic LTER.
Data is being collected on 1) fundamental environmental drivers, e.g., climate, 2) parameters that are known to be changing in response to changing environmental conditions, e.g. plant phenology and timing of nesting and migration of birds, and 3) baseline data needed to fill gaps in present knowledge, e.g. snow surveys and species inventories.
Part of the program objective is to broaden the long-term data collection already performed at Toolik Field Station by extending sample/data collection of key parameters into the shoulder seasons (i.e., spring and fall seasons). On-site science support with scheduling, calibrating, and maintaining common-use scientific equipment is performed along with limited field support for research projects.
To best develop a scientifically coherent program, the Toolik management team will continue to solicit ideas for environmental data collection from the scientific community and use appropriate suggestions in crafting the direction of the program. In addition, other arctic research stations, such as Zackenberg Research Station, will be used as models for the development of long-term monitoring studies that will produce data useful to a broad based science community.
Current activities of the Environmental Data Program include:
Phenology surveys.
Climate measurements.
Extension of long-term monitoring into shoulder seasons.
General Use Equipment.
Project support.
